kohulan/orthonym-skills/scientific-poster

Scientific poster

Output: a single-slide .pptx, a print PDF, a preview JPEG, the build script and its assets in poster/ of the project, and a pin board for review rounds. Everything is rebuilt from poster.js until the user edits the pptx by hand; from then on, see "Hand edits". The worked example in example/ is a real cheminformatics poster; example/reference-render.jpg shows the finished layout.

Needs: Node (pptxgenjs, sharp, playwright), LibreOffice, poppler (pdftoppm), Python 3 with Pillow, and Anthropic's pptx skill (github.com/anthropics/skills) for validate.py and soffice.py; export its folder as PPTX_SKILL. The pin board needs the claude.ai Artifact tool with the db and comments capabilities; without it, run the review on the preview image in chat.

Copy this checklist and track your progress:

• [ ] 1 Sources read, every number noted with where it comes from and what it is a share of
• [ ] 2 Decision question answered (or defaults stated)
• [ ] 3 Assets collected, each with its provenance
• [ ] 4 Build validated, fontcheck.py passed, render looked at region by region, no wrap or overlap
• [ ] 5 Delivered into poster/ with README
• [ ] 6 Pin board published; rounds applied until no pin is open

1. Gather

• Read the manuscript (markitdown with the docx extra), the repos (README, release version, docs,

test data) and any benchmark report. Note every number with its source. The poster shows only numbers a source states; a number you computed yourself is labelled as such.

• Extract: title, authors with affiliations and corresponding e-mail, abstract, the method or

pipeline steps, 2–4 headline numbers for stat tiles, one or two charts, one table, availability (repo, licence, registry coordinates, DOIs, public instance), funding and acknowledgements, 5–7 references, future work in one line, and one real input to follow through the tool.

• For each number, note its denominator and, for a data set, the selection rule and its source;

both go on the poster (references/content.md). When no benchmark exists and the user wants results, run one; references/content.md says how to keep it reproducible and checked.

• Stale or contradictory facts (README badge vs. build file, paper vs. repo requirement) are findings

for the report; the poster omits the disputed detail rather than picking a side.

2. One decision question

Ask once, in the first reply (also when the user asked only for a plan), with the question picker, at most three items, each with a default: format (pptx), size (A0, 33.11 × 46.81 in, or A1), emphasis (whole pipeline, mirrors the manuscript; or results; or the tool). Skip what the request already says. Do not ask about anything else. Logos, URLs, funding, the illustration and the conference come from the sources; what is missing goes under "Open items" as a statement with its default ("Logos: taken from the repo; an official file can replace them later"), never as a question.

The layout is portrait only, and there is no landscape variant to build. When the request asks for landscape, say so in the same question and offer portrait at the stated size; do not offer or recommend a custom landscape layout. Conference name and date go on the poster only when stated.

3. Assets (references/assets.md)

Logos from the repos, logos of the institutions the sources name (never one from the example or from memory), QR codes (repository, web app, a mailto: contact), UI screenshots taken through the real app with Playwright (example/shots.js), the gradient plus hexagon background from example/bg.js, and one illustration for the problem statement: a shape diagram drawn by the script as the fallback, plus a prompt file for an image generator (example/illustration-prompt.md). If the user supplies the image, make its white background transparent and prefer the PNG.

4. Build (references/layout.md, references/build-qa.md, references/content.md)

Copy example/poster.js to the build folder, keep the geometry constants and helpers, replace the content. The layout: wordmark header with institution logo; full-width abstract band with a vertical tab and QR codes; a two-column body in open sections separated by thin rules (left: how it works, with the illustration and a step flow; right: results with stat rows, a chart, a table and one italic takeaway line per half); a third row (principles or features left, screenshots right); a footer with licence line, short references in two columns, funding and a contact QR.

Readability: nothing under 7 pt when the whole poster is printed on A4 and held at arm's length, which is 28 pt on A0 and 20 pt on A1; section titles 48 pt, body 30 pt on A0. Text that does not fit is shortened, never set smaller. scripts/fontcheck.py <file.pptx> checks every text run, table cell and chart label against that floor and exits 1 on a failure.

Build, validate, run fontcheck.py, render to PDF and JPEG, and look at the full page and at zoom crops of every region. Fix wraps, overlaps, clipped text and empty gaps in the script, never in the pptx. Rebuild and look again; two or three rounds are normal. validate.py and fontcheck.py must pass before the file leaves the build folder.

A request for a new look ("more infographic", "too full", "other styles") keeps every content item and changes the layout, not only the colours. First list every item of the current poster from poster.js; remove only what the user named, and tick each other item off in the new version. references/content.md has the rules.

5. Deliver

Copy the pptx, the PDF, the preview, poster.js, theme.js, bg.js, shots.js, assets/ and a README from example/README.md (rebuild command, asset provenance, number sources with the full reference list) into <project>/poster/. When the layout changes, move the previous outputs to poster/backup/ first. Record the decisions and the build location in project memory.

6. Review rounds (references/review-board.md)

Publish assets/board.html with the 110 dpi render as board.jpg. The user drops numbered pins with notes and presses "Done, send to Claude", or says the pins are there. Read the pins from the board's database (ArtifactData query on the pins collection), never from a screenshot or the comment text alone; map percent positions to slide inches with the geometry constants in poster.js, apply, rebuild, republish the board image to the same URL, mark the pins done. A pin that needs the user's decision stays open with a question. Repeat until no pin is open.

Hand edits

This mode starts only when the user says they edited the pptx, or the pptx is newer than the PDF and preview of the last build; otherwise every change goes into poster.js and the poster is rebuilt. Once the user has edited the pptx in PowerPoint, a rebuild from poster.js would erase their changes. From then on:

1. Copy their file to poster/backup/ before any change (scripts/patch_text.py does this).
2. Text changes: scripts/patch_text.py <file.pptx> "<old>" "<new>" replaces one text run in the

slide XML and keeps its formatting. Anything else (moving or resizing shapes, chart text): make it in the XML the same way, or tell the user what to change in PowerPoint.

1. Copy the same change into poster.js, so a later rebuild does not undo it.
2. Run validate.py and fontcheck.py on their file, render it and look at the changed region.

Text under the floor that their own edits introduced is reported, not changed.

If the user renames or moves the file, use the new name and do not restore the old one.

Report

Short status: what was built and where, what was verified (validation, font check, render looked at), and open items as a numbered list: conference name, disputed facts, assets taken from other sources that an official file should replace.

Things that bite

• pres.layout must be set after defineLayout, or the file reports an unknown layout.
• pptxgenjs always writes Office's colour scheme. example/theme.js writes the poster palette into

the theme after writeFile; without it every pres.SchemeColor shape renders Office blue.

• LibreOffice substitutes fonts it lacks; keep Calibri or Arial so the render predicts PowerPoint,

or alias a brand font the render machine lacks (references/build-qa.md).

• Chart text left at its default size renders at 10–18 pt; set every chart font size.
• Chart and placeholder pitfalls (breakLine, stacked bars, transparent charts) are in

references/build-qa.md.